


Afterlife

by peachandbetty



Series: Afterlife [1]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:50:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5746189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachandbetty/pseuds/peachandbetty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A re-write (sort of) on the events after Heero's proposal in FT. Includes parts of the epilogue but in more detail. Part 2: Martian road trip, dat ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Disappearing

_The lovely Athenise from Tumblr has translated the FT epilogue for me, so this is what I promised to her for all the cutesy details spelled out in good old English. Now, I'm not a FT fan but I can't help but love the fact 1xR is canon. I do, however, take issue with the way it was handled. And so, this is my take on what happens after the proposal. I'll be incorporating FT canon but...in my way._

**Which means M/E rating, naturally.**

### Part 1 - Disappearing

Leaving the lives they know behind, Relena got a taste of what her brother must have gone through those 30 years prior.

After a life of being accustomed to having what she needed at hand and readily available, her sudden lack of resources was the first thing to make itself apparent. Her money was a good as useless. That was Relena Peacecraft's money. She no longer even had the name to call her own, let alone the assets.

The smell of bread baking from a local café drew her in and just as quickly, a firm hand on her hip steered her away from her path. She looked up at her recently acquired fiancé questioningly before her reached into his pocket and handed her a slightly squashed protein bar.

She had always held in the highest regard the need to keep a stiff upper lip in tight situations, and for a short while she had done just that. As Heero checked them into a motel in the Martian outback, using what she could only assume was a hacked credit card, his first instruction to her was to take a bath.

He'd said it commandingly, and she'd almost taken offence to it coming from the man who had only a day ago claimed her for marriage, until she realised he was simply removing the option for her to challenge him. There was a reason he wanted her to be alone.

When the sting of the water washed over her grimy body, she watched the pattern of ripples and listened to the echoes off the tiles walls. It was then that a stiff upper lip morphed quickly into a trembling bottom one, and she tasted salty droplets fall down her cheeks and felt a pain inside her chest that preluded the flood.

When she came out, she was overly conscious that not only did her face betray every sign of her distress, red puffiness included, but that her options for attire had been limited to a towel that only barely covered the essential parts.

She supposed she shouldn't feel the need to be shy around him, considering their current status, but it was yet another thing that she would have to get used to. She'd always been brought up to hold in regard certain values, and the modesty of women was one of them. On their way in, she had seen many a couple, clearly unmarried, clinging to each other as they picked their keys up from the kiosk. It was so natural to others, that she felt positively alien to feel as she did in that moment.

She peered out from around the corner of the bathroom door. She was relieved to see him laying on the bed with his eyes closed. Unsure if he was asleep, and sure he was the type who slept lightly anyway, she cleared her throat nervously to get his attention.

When his eyes opened, he was staring right at her, her stomach fluttered and she felt heat rush to her face. Those eyes were always intense, but given their current situation she could help but feel all but naked, despite the towel and door between them.

"I'm coming out," she tried to sound normal but it came out off-key in a way that made her sound very silly.

One hand holding the towel closed and the other giving one last tug down at the back, she came out from behind the door, making a conscious effort not to make eye contact with him again.

"I'm going to order some food," he said, apparently ignorant to her distress. She wasn't sure if he was truly unknowing of her thoughts, of if her was simply doing her the courtesy of not acknowledging them, but she was thankful for it. Emboldened, she reached for her clothes before hesitating.

Mottled with dirt, she couldn't very well wear what she had taken off. Those were Relena Peacecraft's clothes, and she had died in them.

"I can pick up some things on the way out?" He offered, as though reading her mind, and she couldn't help but smile. She'd heard lamentations about men not knowing what women want but Heero so far had been everything she needed, a firm hand guiding her to where she needed to be. She needed to survive this, and though she had no idea how, she had no doubt in her mind that he did.

"Some clothes would be nice. Some jeans, a top, some underwe…" She stopped herself short of that sentence with a poorly disguised cough, her face burning. She had just asked Heero Yuy to buy her undergarments a day into their relationship. If only her mother knew.

When she saw the tugging of his lips, she knew he was no longer attempting to save her embarrassment but she didn't really care. She'd not seen Heero smile much, but that amused smirk made all awareness of her near undress return tenfold.

In the echo of her mind, a naughty part of her wondered what would happen if she dropped her towel.

Shocked by the direction of her own thought, she subconsciously clutched the thin white cloth tighter around her.

"28B," he stated, "shouldn't be hard to find." He took up from her bed, walked over to the chair where she'd dumped her clothes and replaced the brassier she'd apparently been holding all along back on top.

Face flushing in the knowledge he'd been fondling her undergarment while she was bathing, she turned to give him a piece of her mind.

The feeling of his hand, rough and calloused, gently pushing her damp hair behind her ears and tipping her face up to look at his own stopped all thoughts in their tracks.

"Relena," he spoke softly, his deep timbre familiar and rich. He touched his forehead to hers, his eyes searching hers in a way that made her chest flutter. "Stop trying to be brave. Especially not for me."

She felt the warmth of his breath against her, the vibration of his voice through her. When his other hand slipped around her back, a blank fuzziness took over her senses, replaced with nothing but the feel of him touching her, guiding her closer to him, against him, with a gentle strength that was uniquely his.

"Don't open the door." He commanded softly, before the chill of the room suddenly made itself apparent where his warmth had once been.

Slightly dazed and with a warmth in her that had been previously absent, even in the heat of the bath tub, she noticed for the first time since her assassination that she was calm. She lay down on the slightly stiff sheets one could expect from an establishment of this nature and took a deep breath.

Two things were certain at this point.

Whatever the future held in store for her, Heero would be instrumental in it.

And that the way her heart thrummed in her chest at the memory of his touch, however innocent and however meant to simply reassure her, promised that marriage would only be the beginning of it.


	2. Finding a Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Martian road trip.

You people have no idea how tempting it was to take this chapter in a very different direction. I am the epitome of restraint.

# 2\. Finding a home

It surprised Heero how quickly Relena had gotten used to life in the rough, though he was acutely aware that living from motel to motel was far from his own definition of such.

As she dumped their most recent resupply of food, drink and other essentials into the back seat of a car he'd acquired (the means of which she didn't need to know about), she was smiling, a far cry from the woman who'd not a few weeks ago had sobbed her frustrations into a bath tub.

He felt guilty, in the way he supposed a significant other was supposed to feel guilty, in that he couldn't protect her from the shock of a vastly different life. But it was a necessary evil, and he knew she didn't blame him for it. That didn't stop the gnawing sensation that told him he should be…better.

"So, where are we going next?" She chirped, delicately pulling apart the wrapper of a hot wrap. The smell of cheap additives filled the car and his stomach growled, prompting him to take his own from the paper bag.

"Would you believe there's a village called Eden?" He asked, getting the confused look he was expecting. It was a new sensation to him, really, that pride one gets when you've taken the time to painstakingly put together a plan purely for the benefit of another and to see it bear fruit.

He liked it.

"You're joking, aren't you?" She replied mater-of-factly, sure that this was another of his poker-faced jests.

For once, Heero didn't find it amusing.

"No…I'm serious." He explained awkwardly, but any disheartened feeling he'd had disappeared when her face suddenly lit up.

"Truly?!" She asked, nearly dropping her wrap in the process. "Please tell me it wasn't named in irony?"

Heero felt his lips curl, a sensation he was getting pleasantly used to over the last few weeks, and took a bite out of his wrap.

He let her stew in her own excitement over the course of their journey. This far away from the main city, the Martian roads were barely marked out, with next to no traffic on the way, and it made for a pleasant drive. She spent her time looking over the landscape, green and untouched where the terraforming algae had taken root but hadn't yet been shaped by man-made civilisation.

Every now and then she would twist in her seat to lean out of the window, glancing behind her where two of the moons were translucent in the sky. As an earthling all of her life, and a colonist for most of his, it was a novel sight for both of them and beyond strange to think that in the time they'd been asleep, an entirely new world had been born and bred.

Glancing over at her, and seeing half of her body out of the window, he instinctively slowed down. "Don't stick your head out too far." He warned, every fibre of his being fighting the urge to pull her back in.

"There's nothing around," she protested, shouting against the wind. Despite her protest, she pulled in a little, resting her arms against the open window frame, staring out at the landscape.

And inadvertently presenting her rear within a hand's reach.

Her hair flowed out of the window along with the wind, and the sun setting over the horizon cast an orange glow down the curve of her spine.

When he'd asked her to be his, he'd done so out of a genuine love for her character and person, and in a knowledge that life going forward could not be conceived without her in it.

The last few weeks had made the other important element of a romantic relationship extremely evident.

Heat dusting his cheeks, he thanked the sunset for hiding any outwards signs of his thoughts.

Engaged to marry tough they were, their relationship was still very young, although it felt he'd known her a lifetime. He'd always been taught that certain needs weren't healthy to be ignored, and that to keep himself focused, he should seek to rectify those needs as soon as was possible. He wasn't ignorant. He knew that he was physically attractive, and he'd used that to his advantage during the war, never needing to look far for someone his own age willing to give him what he needed.

This was different. He didn't doubt that handled correctly, he could overcome her sensibilities and Relena would let him take his fill. He also didn't doubt that in doing so, he would single-handedly decimate the delicate balance of trust and respect that their relationship had been built on, and the thought of that terrified him.

He was extremely adept at losing the people close to him.

And so, he kept his eyes more firmly on the road than was strictly necessary, and when darkness came she was finally asleep, curled up with her knees drawn into her chest.

Driving over the Martian plain at night wasn't something to take lightly. It was rocky terrain as it was, and this far out there was no man-made lighting to make them clear. But, there would be no motels this far out and there was very little point in him stopping for the night. He was conscious that outside the vehicle, the temperatures would be sub-zero, and so he'd have to keep the heating on anyway.

Every now and again, she would adjust herself in her seat and mumble in her sleep. She was a restless sleeper, always kicking, tugging at the blankets and even speaking things that would make sense to absolutely nobody. Having someone fight him in his sleep wasn't idea but was something he was determined to get used to.

When he saw the familiar sight of the sun glistening off of water, he knew their journey was at an end. A good thing, considering he was about due a refuel.

The sun glowed yellow as it reflected off a large lake in the distance, and the roads once more became smoother, lined and signed. There was mountainous quality to the landscape and as he came over a large hill it was all downhill driving until they reached their destination.

Spotting a familiar landmark up ahead, he moved to wake her.

"Relena," he called, ignoring the feeling of her thigh beneath his hands as he rocked her awake, "look."

Stirring, and rubbing the sleep from her eyes groggily, she sat upright, stretching the crick from her neck. He would have to apologise for the sleeping conditions later.

Pinned to the bark of an overgrown tree, a wooden hand-painted sign cast a shadow onto the road in front of them.

_Welcome to Eden._

The look of amused wonderment on her face was clearly worth the journey.

"You weren't joking." She teased, a mixture of fatigue and love in her voice that made his heart race.

For the first time since her political death, since he taken her promise to be his, he felt like he'd earned the right to be her husband.

He figured he'd enjoy it while it lasted.

She hadn't yet seen the house…

_Next: A very handy man does sexy handsy things._


	3. Fixer Upper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not the Frozen song.  
> Heero takes Relena to their new home. Ish.

# 3\. Fixer Upper

Watching the world that was to be her new home slowly reveal itself to her, mountain by stream by wild deer crossing, was one of the most wonder filled moments of her life. She'd done a lot in her short eighteen years, and even as a child had seen more than most were able to see in a lifetime but that feeling of renewed wanderlust for the world intensified like a hum in her chest. Well. A world.

If somebody had told her that she would one day witness an entire planet build in the image of her own beloved Earth, but with its own charm and character that she couldn't help but fall for, she would have rolled her eyes.

The last few weeks of exploring it with Heero had been something of an unexpected treat. She had prepared herself for a hard time, sleeping on lumpy beds in rooms comparable to a sty, eating cheap food that tasted entirely of the preservatives used to transport them from Earth, but Heero made a statement from the very start that she now knew to be true. Seeing the best in things was her hidden talent.

She'd enjoyed the feeling of having a bath, spending all the time she wanted in there without the niggling feeling in the back of her mind pushing her and constantly reminding her that she needed to do something. Pulling comfortable clothes on top with nobody to care what she looked like.

And crawling into bed with no care or concept of when she would need to rise again.

At first, he had been cautiously distant with her, keeping her at arm's length, as though he expected her to repeal her acceptance of his proposal on the spot. When he was insistent in procuring twin accommodation, and getting them piteous looks from the staff, she'd taken over administration of their logistics, knowing that any attempt made to know him as a husband would need to be initiated by her.

When he'd first seen the room with a double bed, she'd had to pull on his arm to top him giving his two pennies to the receptionist. She wasn't sure how to portray in words that she wanted to try sleeping in the same bed. Everything she thought of sounded overly bold and suggested something far too advanced for their very new relationship. But he seemed to get the picture, the muscles in his arm relaxing with his understanding and that night she had slept beside what could only be called a human radiator.

The last few weeks had been a whirlwind of new and firsts and now all she could thing about was the first home she could truly call hers.

She would have liked to think Heero felt the same but there was a subtlety to his demeanour, the way he gripped the wheel with both hands rather than his usual relaxed one, the deepness of his breathing, that told her he was anxious.

Which intrigued her more than worried her.

"Is there a town around here?" She asked, trying to glean some level of information from him, "We'd need a few basics to start with. Soap, tea, bottled water…"

"There's a small village store not far from the house," he explained, though his tension hadn't eased, "but you'll need to drive to a town called New Thanet to buy everything else."

"But I don't drive," Relena pointed out, quite rightly. Did he expect her to stay put while he did whatever it was he planned on doing?

"You can learn." He replied simply, and though he was right, Relena felt the need to argue her case on this one. Relena wasn't good at taking instruction, even at school, and there would be nobody else to teach her but him. If there was one sure and certain way to end their marriage before the ink had dried on their papers, this would be it.

He would leave her from frustration if nothing else.

"Relax," he told her, and she realised she'd been biting her lip. She guessed she wasn't the only one who had readable anxiety, and for a moment his calm tone soothed her. "There'll be nobody to hit for a fifteen mile radius."

Flushing indignantly she swatted his shoulder for that remark, only to catch the smile pricking at the corner of his mouth. Amusement at her expense seemed to be a trademark of his wit, but she strangely enjoyed it. The fifteen year old she'd met on a beach was a far cry from the man driving her to her marital home, and his anxiety seemed to have dissipated entirely.

She smiled, lay her head back and let the warm breeze thread through her hair. Whatever he was nervous about, she had every confidence they could face it together.

A sentiment which lasted about as long as their remaining road time.

Whatever she had expected of her countryside Martian home, it wasn't this. From a distance, it had looked almost like a Georgian lake house, all pale yellow brick and white sash windows, with a wooden jetty reaching into the flawless lake surface. Up close…it was a Georgian lake house that had seen the blitz.

She ran her hand over the wooden beams that housed a porch, brushing moss off of the surface. This place clearly hadn't been lived in for a long time, and seeing as Mars was just under thirty years old, she had no doubt the algae had accelerated its abandoned look.

She reached for the doorknob, twisting to find an already opened door. To her surprise, it didn't look like it had a lock.

"It's safe out here," Heero's voice came from just behind her and she started. Relena still wasn't used to how he did that. "People have no need to lock their doors."

Relena nodded. It was a strange thought, a world where people trusted each other so that they felt no need for defence. It was a world she had once tried to build in its entirety, and while she knew that was impossible on a larger scale, seeing the micro simplicity of that plain ideal in action was cathartic.

The first thing that struck her as she stepped inside was the sound. Her soft soled shoes were rubber but she could hear every step she made. She took a deep breath and found the air with that unmistakable musk of age, a nostalgic smell that took her back to the attic and the wine cellar in her childhood home, the places she loved to explore with a new treasure to find every day.

"Hang on," she heard him speak through the dark, and heard him walk away from her. A few seconds later, light filled the space around her, and she squinted for the brightness of it.

Large bay windows let the light in where the sun reflected on the lake, and the dust danced in its beams. Hard wood floors, in need of a polish, still shone around her, as though every surface and detail was made to worship the sun. An open living room was connected by archway to a dining area.

Her heart emboldened, she followed the path around, dining room connecting to a large kitchen. She was never a domestic woman. Girls of her position were taught a different kind of domesticity, and it involved managing a household staff more than cooking and cleaning. She idly wondered how on earth she would manage this place by herself.

Four upper rooms later, she came back down the stairs, finding Heero waiting for her sat on the bottom step.

Taking her seat beside him, and unable to keep the smile from her face, she leaned to the side and rest her head on his shoulder, which was quickly becoming her favourite place to put it.

"Thank you." She said, meaning it from the depths of her heart.

She wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but everything about this place was home to her in a way that went beyond the superficial. The memories of her childhood. The safe haven. The light of the sun in every possible corner.

"It's a work in progress," he explained, anxiety gone and replaced by a fatigue. She guiltily remembered he'd been driving this entire time. "I'll get started tomorrow."

A feeling welled up in her chest that she could almost call painful if it didn't follow her complete contentment, and for all she had been avoiding the action, for all they had been dancing around the reality of their new-found status, the kiss she placed on his cheek had never felt better placed.

His head turned to look at her with the wide-eyed innocence she always knew he had buried, keeping her eyes locked with his as she touched her lips lightly to his. His eyes softened, replaced with a warmth that was uniquely his, and when his hand came up to cup her cheek, drawing her in to explore this new development more thoroughly, every nerve and fibre of her sang.

_So, this chapter went in a different direction than planned. Originally, it had some lime-ish content in there but it didn't seem to fit. Yet. It will come, as well as full-blown earth-shattering citrus explosions but for now, they're just too sweet. Need to dirty them up a little first. So Heero the sexy handyman will come...next chapter :D_


	4. UPDATE

Hello,

Thanks for following this fic and I hope you're enjoying it.

Due to work reasons, I'm planning to take my works off of the public domain very shortly.

However, I will still be continuing with this story and my others because I love them and I want to finish them.

So, to enable this I am creating a distribution list so I can send new chapters and new stories to whoever might want them.

If this is something you would like to join, please PM me on my Tumblr account (same name) how you would best like me to send the file to you (email, PM etc).

Sorry if this is a pain in the arse and I hope I'll still be hearing from some of you as this story progresses. :)

I also have need of a Beta reader so if anybody is interested let me know.

New chapter Sunday.

Peach


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